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THE POWER OF AN INVITATION THE POWER OF AN INVITATION
Invitations mean a great deal to
our society whether you are young or old. There is something about invited to
an event that makes you feel special and accepted. For instances when we use to
be in school you could determine very quickly if you belonged to a particular
group if they invited you to their birthdays and such. I know sometimes some
kids cross their fingers hoping that they will be invited to the cool kids
party and if that happens then that person will jump for joy at the invitation.
There are certainly other examples of this such how a young lady feels when a
handsome young man invites on her on a date or how a person feels when then
boss invites them out to dinner. Of course many more examples could be given
but we can certainly see that giving and receiving invitations are powerful in
our society. But, this same thing is true when it comes to Bible and learning
about God and that is what I want to look at this morning.
We will be examining several
aspects of what the Bible shows about the power of an invitation. The first
thing we are going to look at are several examples of how some came to know
Jesus because of a simple invitation. Our first example comes from,
John 1:35 Again, the next day, John stood with
two of his disciples. 36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he
said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him speak, and
they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned, and seeing them
following, said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to Him,
"Rabbi" (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), "where are
You staying?" 39 He said to them, "Come and
see." They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that
day (now it was about the tenth hour). 40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon,
and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated,
the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when
Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall
be called Cephas" (which is translated, A Stone).
Here we can certainly see the
power of invitation and what became of it. Because Andrew took the time to
invite his brother Peter to come and see Jesus, Peter ends up becoming one his
followers which leads him to becoming one of the chosen 12 apostles of Christ.
From there as we a read in our Bible we learn that Peter becomes a reckoning
force in furthering the
John 1:43 The following day Jesus wanted to go
to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me." 44 Now Philip was from
Once again we see a simply
invitation given to Nathanael by Philip. At first Nathanael is hesitant because
he couldn’t understand how anything good come from
What we need to learn from this is
that sometimes people are going to be hesitant about being invited to know
Christ but we must be persistent and tell them how important it is to know
Christ and that they just need to see it for themselves and experience it.
There is no greater invitation that you give as Christians or accept as a
non-Christians than to know Jesus because He has the Words that lead to eternal
life. When you get to know Jesus and understand what he represents it is only
natural for you to want to invite other to know him as well, and we have example
of this when Jesus stops at Samaria and is waiting by Jacob well,
John 4:7 A woman of
You have to understand most Jews
would walk around
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her,
"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a
drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living
water." 11 The woman said to Him, "Sir, You
have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that
living water? 12 "Are You greater than our father
Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and
his livestock?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her,
"Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 "but whoever drinks of the water
that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him
will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life." 15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give
me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your
husband, and come here." 17 The woman answered and said, "I
have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no
husband,' 18 "for you have had five husbands,
and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke
truly." 19 The
woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 "Our fathers worshiped on this
mountain, and you Jews say that in
Now put yourself in the shoes of
this women and imagine how awkward you would feel for a Jew to be talking to
you and then for this Jewish man to start telling you that he has water that he
can offer that cause you never thirst again. While your pondering that thought
He lets you know that you are open book to him and he knows about your personal
life even though you have never seen him before. At this point you realize
there is something very special about this man so you ask him about worship and
tells what true worship is going to be which worshiping God in spirit and in
truth. Then finally he reveals to you that he is the Christ the coming Messiah.
Thing about how overwhelmed you would be to know that you were in the presences
of the Son of God. You would have forgotten all about your water pot as well
and as we see this cause this woman to go tell all the people she could about
Jesus and what he had done. She was inviting people left and right to come see
Jesus.
John 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that
city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He
told me all that I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans had come to
Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
Once again we see the power of an
invitation and how this sinful women was able to lead many to Christ that would
not have know him otherwise. This is what God is all about. He invites people
to share in his love and to become his servant. He never tries to force anyone
because he wants you and I to choose whom we will serve because he has given us
a free will. Just as Joshua says,
Joshua 24:15 "And if it seems evil to
you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or
the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house,
we will serve the LORD."
Since he has given us this free
will this is why God only asks us to invite people to know the Lord and to let
them choose their own fate. This is illustrated for us by Jesus in,
Luke 14:16 Then He said to him, "A certain
man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 "and sent his servant at supper
time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now
ready.' 18 "But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first
said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask
you to have me excused.' 19"And
another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I
ask you to have me excused.' 20 "Still another said, 'I have
married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' 21 "So that servant came and
reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry,
said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city,
and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.' 22 "And the servant said, 'Master,
it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.' 23 "Then the master said to the
servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be
filled. 24 'For I say to you that none of those
men who were invited shall taste my supper.' "
This is an easy story to
understand. The supper was made and people were invited and the first set of
people rejected the invitation and they made excuses of why they couldn’t come.
It important for us to realize that not everyone will accept you invitation to
know the Lord and just the people in the stories when they don’t want to say no
they will start making excuses but this is going to happen and we must press on
just the man did in our story. He went back out and went to a different class
of people and invited them and they accepted but there was still more room so
he went out and invited all to come to his feast. Of course Jesus was showing
in this story the rejection of Jews to hear him and how that the Gentiles would
be called to know him and become a child a God and how that there is room for
everyone in God’s kingdom who will accept the invitation.
We must always keep this is the
back of our mind. Never give up on giving out invitation to know the lord. When
you rejected over and over again just keep inviting the next person. Most
likely you finally find someone that will accept the invitation and who knows
they may become the next great leader for the cause of Christ. Another thing
you should consider is even if you invite people all your life and no accepts
the invitation you can feel confident that you did not fail because you have
done what God has asked you to do and you can rejoice in that.
The last thing I want to look at
this morning is 2 different ways that you can use the power of an invitation to
lead people to Christ.
1. We need to invite people to
come worship with us or to come to our Bible classes. One survey I looked at
showed that the number 1 reason why people started attending the worship
services was because a friend or a loved one invited them. Now I don’t remember
the exact percentage but it seems that it was around 80% of the people said
this was the reason.
Each one of you comes in contact
with people that nobody else knows and you should be inviting these people to
worship with you. Now, I know that is scary to ask people this sometimes but
must overcome this fear and not worry about what they are going to think about
you because your invitation could be the key to their salvation. Notice what
Paul says in,
1
Thessalonians 2:3 For our
exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. 4 But as we have been approved by God to
be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God
who tests our hearts. 5 For neither at any time did we use
flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness -- God is
witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from men, either
from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of
Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, just as
a nursing mother cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for you, we
were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own
lives, because you had become dear to us. I encourage you don’t pass up the
power of a invitation.
Basically Paul is teaching that as
Christians we are not to be concerned about trying to appease men and women by
speaking flattery to them instead we are should be sharing with them the truth
from God’s Word. But at the same time we are not to shove it down their
throats. We are to be gentle and inviting by building relationships with them
which will cause their hearts to more open to God’s Word and to your
invitations.
2. A second thing we can do has do
with building relationships and that is by inviting people into your homes or
inviting them to events where you can get to know them better and open up
opportunities to have a Bible study. This could also include accepting
invitation to other people’s homes. Again, don’t waist any opportunities of
inviting people to know the Lord.
In conclusion we have learned just
how powerful and invitation can be. We saw how Peter was invited by his brother
to know Jesus and how Philip invited Nathaniel to know Jesus and we saw the
results from this and we looked several other examples that showed how
difference a invitation made in people lives and we can harness that same power
today by inviting people to know Jesus and allowing them to choose whom they
will serve. So don’t ever forget the power of an invitation.
As always at the end of every
lesson I want to offer you invitation and that invitation is from the Lord,
Matthew
11:28 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn
from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Jesus want you to know him and he
wants to be part of your life and he is standing at the door knocking waiting
for you to invite him in. (give plan of salvation)
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